Rock Turtleneck had been digging the new U2 album. "But as I listened to it over the weekend, something began to bug me: the lead single, "Get On Your Boots" is a total rip-off of one of the shittiest songs of the 80s: "Wild Wild West" by the Escape Club. Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed:"

8-6 them in the 8th. So weird to hear the 3-man booth: Castig, O'B, and Rish. Remember how Josh came on here a few games back saying Castiglione was interviewing a different Castiglione. Today Joe's saying yet another Castiglione is at the park, an old Pittsburgh Pirate.

I'm an unrepentant fan of U2, new and old. Certainly some albums are better than others, and the last couple have been a little conservative to my ear. But I always find a lot to like about every album and I have seen every tour since my 16th birthday.

But it's true. I did not care for "Boots" at first -- it's grown on me since then -- but there's an unmistakable resemblance to that "Wild Wild West" tune.

Does that make it a ripoff? I don't think so. The cadence is something anyone could come up with. But it certainly makes it harder to enjoy.

MLB: "After feeling a shooting pain in his left side, Dustin Pedroia was scratched from Team USA's lineup on Saturday night and will be further examined by Red Sox physicians on Sunday in Fort Myers, Fla."

I was going to say I liked Pop enough at the time, but it turns out the album I'm thinking of is Zooropa. Don't think I have heard Pop.

And looking at the dates, I see why. I was still on mailing lists in 1993, so I got a copy of Zooropa. Free music, man, it was the best. Pop came out in 1997 (at which point I was working on 1918 and had not written about music for more than two years). So no free copy for Allan.

I first saw U2 in Florida in December, 1987. General Admission in a football stadium in those days was a major endurance test, but it was worth it.

I liked Pop; a couple of songs on there are, to me, as good as any U2, although there are three that are hard to distinguish from each other. I don't like "Staring at the Sun" that much, but it was raided by that Gorillaz song (a Google search shows I'm not the only one to notice this either.)

As a matter of fact, one of the things I don't like about U2 in the 2000's is the way they've seemed to apologize for Pop, both literally and by insisting on putting out a couple of albums (in 2001 and 2005) that seemed to trade on their old (pre-Achtung Baby) sound. I would say it's true that their live shows are primarily what have kept me loyal, although the three or four utter gems on even their weaker albums do the trick as well.

I hope the new album is as different from the last two as reviews seem to imply. I'm not happy they're going to be exclusively in football stadiums for the tour, but it does look like an extraordinary setup, so I will probably see a show.

The idea of buying a CD is getting kind of weird; I will buy theirs and take a chance on Prince's 3-pack that's going to be only 12 USD.